December 3, 2011

Finally, an Olsen Sister Gets Naked in a Movie

Remember back in the heady days of the Olsen Twins Countdown Clock, who among us could have imagined that the first Olsen sister to get naked on film would be…one we’d never even heard of before?

Yes, according to the very reputable New York Times, it’s the twenty-one year old Elizabeth Olsen whose nude scenes in her movie “Martha Marcy May Marlene” are lighting up the Sundance film festival in Park City, Utah this week (and, with Fox Searchlight’s purchase of MMMM, hopefully lighting up a theater near us very, very soon).

“It was incredibly weird to watch it with other people watching it,” she added, “especially during nude parts.”

Yeah, about those: in “Martha Marcy May Marlene” (which Fox Searchlight bought on Monday) Ms. Olsen bares quite a lot, and has some semi-graphic sex scenes.

“My dad, when he found out there was nudity in the film, was like, are you sure this is a good idea?” Ms. Olsen said, adding that it was a stretch for her too. “Me as a person, I don’t even wear things that show my midriff ever. I’m a very covered-up human being.” But she thought the nudity served the story, helping explain her character’s twisted relationship to sexuality.

You can kind of see the resemblance to her sisters, but it’s like you took an Olsen and fed her regularly, while raising her in a household of loving acceptance instead of a grueling endless cycle of child labor, marketing and grubbing every penny. In other words, this one looks human.